Category: Divrei Torah: General

Yom haZikaron

One of the best known poems in Israel, at least in my generation, was Natan Alterman’s ‘Magash Hakessef’ – The Silver Platter. No translations ever did it proper justice, that I know of. The poem emphasizes the price we pay for the wonderful privilege of living with a State of Israel. The reality of Jewish return to the Land of Israel has been one mixed with large parts of celebration and large parts of sobriety and mourning. Ours are a few generations now that have witnessed and experienced at least partially what Jews have dreamt about and daily prayed about for thousands of years. Ours are generations that have experienced a return and revival after exile that has literally no parallel in human history.

Yom HaAtzmaut

I’ve often encountered an interesting and completely unnecessary obstacle to Jews devoting time to learning Torah and becoming more deeply involved in the committed practice of Judaism. It seems that many of them are of the impression that one has to park their personality and intellect at the door in order to become Jews committed to Hashem’s Torah. Many seem to think finding one’s place in the large scheme of Torah requires precisely fitting a mold, appearing the same, adopting the same mannerisms and speech – becoming robots created in the image of a single set of role models. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Thoughts for Sefirat HaOmer

With the last days of Pesah/Passover already here, we have been counting the Omer for a few days now.  There are all sorts of good discussions and teachings about what the deeper, inner meaning of Sefirat HaOmer.  Have you ever considered, ‘what is the simple meaning of Sefirat HaOmer?’  What is the meaning of this counting from Pesah until Shavuot?  What is the meaning of this counting from Leaving Egypt until Standing at Sinai, Receiving God’s Torah?

An essay on the importance of the words we choose when describing or interacting with non-Jewish society.  Posted to Beyond BT …

Thanks to Rav Mordechai Torczyner, who had this piece on his blog The Rebbetzin’s Husband: Rabbi Yosef Ber Soloveitchik The …

Rav Eli Mansour (DailyHalacha.com) posted the following thought this week. For more of his Torah, see his website. Parashat Bamidbar …